Since I posted my villanelle, "Spring Has Sprung: A Villanelle" in the March Madness Poetry Competition, I have had several questions about the villanelle form itself. So I decided to do a blog post about the villanelle. This is not meant to be an exhaustive examination of the villanelle form but simply my experience with writing villanelles and some things I've learned about them. I like poetry.about.com's definition of the villanelle which includes the breakdown of the rhyme scheme:

The villanelle’s 19 lines form five triplets and a quatrain, using only two rhymes throughout the whole form. The entire first line is repeated as lines 6, 12 and 18 and the third line is repeated as lines 9, 15 and 19—so that the lines which frame the first triplet weave through the poem like refrains in a traditional song, and together form the end of the concluding stanza. With these repeating lines [often called the repetend] represented as A1 and A2 (because they rhyme together), the entire scheme is:

﻿A1bA2

abA1 (refrain)

abA2 (refrain)

abA1 (refrain)

abA2 (refrain)

abA1 (refrain)A2 (refrain)﻿

A good example of a villanelle that many people know is Dylan Thomas' haunting, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" which I will quote here, since it is in the Public Domain. I'll superimpose the rhyme scheme to the right so you can see how Thomas put together his villanelle.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good NightBy Dylan Thomas 1914-1953

Do not go gentle into that good night, A1Old age should burn and rave at close of day; bRage, rage against the dying of the light. A2

Though wise men at their end know dark is right, aBecause their words had forked no lightning they bDo not go gentle into that good night. A1

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright aTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, bRage, rage against the dying of the light. A2

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, aAnd learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, bDo not go gentle into that good night. A1

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight ﻿a﻿Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, bRage, rage against the dying of the light. A2

And you, my father, there on the sad height, aCurse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. bDo not go gentle into that good night. A1Rage, rage against the dying of the light. A2

* * *

﻿In the process of trying to write villanelles, I have learned two things about writing villlanelles:

1. Be sure you have something worth repeating for your repeating lines as both repeating lines will each be repeated several times.

2, Choose your rhymes carefully. Because there are only two rhymes used throughout each villanelle, you have to choose your rhyme scheme carefully and be sure you have enough rhyming words that will work together to get you through the entire villanelle.* * *

﻿When deciding to write my villanelle for March Madness, I decided to use my unusual given word, 'incontinent,' in one of the repeating lines, because I was using the second definition :

and I wanted to bombard the reader with the word, so no thought of the first definition of 'incontinent' would ever enter the reader's mind.

Secondly, I brainstormed for ideas which were 'incontinent' in themselves; i.e., unrestrained, uncontrolled, unbridled, unfettered, and the one idea that kept coming to me was springtime where buds and blooms are bursting, people are feeling exuberant after a long, cooped-up winter, and are getting out to enjoy the outdoors, syrup is flowing out of maple trees, animals are mating, etc., a veritable riot of unrestrained, out-of-control, unfettered incontinence.

* * *﻿﻿I'd like to include one more bit of information about the villanelle as a member of a family of repeating forms, such as the triolet, the pantoum, and the roundel.﻿I love Tilt-a-Whirl editor, Kate Bernadette Benedict's "﻿Cheat Sheet of Poetic Forms﻿." (I believe Tilt-a-Whirl is no longer being published), but it was good while it lasted and is still online for your reading enjoyment. There are good examples of many of the repeating forms.

Author

B. J. Lee is a children’s author and poet. Her picture book, There Was an Old Gator Who Swallowed a Moth, is launching with Pelican Publishing on February 15, 2019. She has poems in 25 poetry anthologies published by Little, Brown, Wordsong, BloomsburyUK, National Geographic, Otter-Barry Books, Pomelo Books, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. She has worked with anthologists Lee Bennett Hopkins, J. Patrick Lewis and Kenn Nesbitt. She has written poems for such children’s magazines as Spider, Highlights and The School Magazine. Follow her on Twitter @bjlee_writer.